Meet the Team
Pamela Buckley
Chair
Pam was elected chair in September 2022. She is passionate about classical music and in particular choral singing. She sang soprano for 25 years in the London Symphony Chorus which she chaired for six years. Soon after moving to Petersfield, Pam joined the Festival Chorus to sing Dyson Canterbury Singers under Paul Spicer, renowned for his interpretation of Dyson’s music and was encouraged to join the committee.
Philip Young
Former Musical Director, now music committee member
Philip joined the Festival committee in 1980, and was chairman from 1990 to 2003 and from 2008 to 2022. As well as being involved with the Festival, he has conducted Fernhurst and Rogate choral societies and has been Musical Director or accompanist for a number of productions by Petersfield Theatre group.
Simon Mason
Secretary
Simon is the Secretary of the Petersfield Musical Festival Committee. A keen singer in his school days, he joined Petersfield Choral Society 15 years ago. He sings bass and has performed at every Festival since then. The Vivaldi and Brahms concerts have been his favourites in recent years.
Tony Newberry
Box office and data protection
Tony became a trustee of the Festival in 2015 when he established online ticketing. As the only non-musician on the Festival Committee he sometimes feels a bit of a fraud, even though he is the father of a young musician. But not performing does leave him free to undertake some of the more prosaic, but vital, technical responsibilities.
Sarah Hard
Press and Publicity
Sarah is responsible for press and publicity, as well as for recruiting and managing choral soloists. A former financial journalist and banker, she is now a qualified music teacher and organizes fund-raising concerts for young musicians. Sarah is also on the board of other music non-profit organizations and is a keen amateur singer.
Sally Maybury
Choir Secretary
The job of coordinating the choirs and independent singers participating in the festival is one Sally loves, enabling her to meet festival participants and be involved in the organisation of the festival. Being a parent, an accountant and, briefly, a teacher constitute a more useful training for this, perhaps, than her current life as a farmer.
Louise Douglas
Administrator for the Michael Hurd Fund for Young Musicians
Louise has for many years been involved in the Young composers’ competition in her role as Head of Music at Alton School and despite being retired from full time music teaching still works as a peripatetic piano teacher at Bohunt School. She is a member of the Renaissance Choir and a keen bassoonist and organist.
Sheila Rowe
Backstage manager
Sheila has, for many years, been involved with the musical life of Petersfield. For 18 years she was music school administrator at Bedales and is currently librarian for Southern Pro Musica. Her role within the Festival is to look after all the orchestras and soloists during rehearsal and performance.
Steve Bartholomew
Music Committee Secretary
Steve has been involved with the Festival since 2014, first as a player with Petersfield Orchestra, then as the Orchestra’s representative on the Festival Committee (and also Orchestra chairman for eight years). As Secretary of the Music Committee, Steve will be helping to select and engage performers, especially professionals and instrumentalists.
Steve has a lifelong love of ‘classical’ music and starting on the bassoon – ‘the last instrument in cupboard’ – whilst at school. He has played it too much ever since, despite a hectic corporate career and a busy family life. Steve now enjoys a much broader range of music thanks to his two grown-up sons who have educated him in jazz, electronic music and much else.
Geoff Culbertson
Hall manager
Geoff became involved with the Festival after he was employed as a caretaker at Petersfield Festival Hall until his retirement, and was then enrolled by the festival committee as a hall manager during the festival, due to his knowledge of the hall. He has sung in many concerts at the Festival Hall, not all of them during the festival. He sings with the Hampshire Police Male Voice Choir and with the Phœnix Singers, a mixed-voice choir.
Nancy Buck
Friends’ Secretary
Nancy started singing in choirs while at school. Her first encounter with the Festival was as a new member of Alton Choral Society in 1985 and she has sung in the Festival Chorus most years since. She joined the Festival Committee in 2007, firstly as a choir rep for ACS and then as Friends’ Secretary from 2009.
Simon O’Hea
Online media
Simon developed this website in 2022 in tandem with the whole team, and maintains it. He also manages the festival’s social media accounts, as well as its online presence on third-party directories. He runs Music in Portsmouth, a classical music events and news website. One of his hobbies is choral singing, and he sings with the Renaissance Choir (and is its Chair) and occasionally with the Chichester Voluntary Choir (in the Cathedral) and Boxgrove Priory Choir. His professional background is in technical translation and digital marketing.
Jonathan Willcocks
President
Jonathan Willcocks combines conducting, both of choral and orchestra repertoire, with extensive composition work and he has also held major posts in general and specialist music education – most recently at the Royal Academy of Music in London. Current appointments include Musical Director of the Chichester Singers, Guildford Choral Society, Leith Hill Music Festival and the professional chamber orchestra Southern Pro Musica. Full details can be found at www.jonathanwillcocks.com. He is proud to be President of the Petersfield Musical Festival.
Nigel Roberts
Fernhurst Choral Society representative
After singing in church choirs in his youth, Nigel took up choral singing again on retirement from an overseas engineering career. He is Chairman of the Fernhurst Choral Society and also sings in a recently formed mixed voice chamber choir, the Siena Singers, based in St Catherine of Siena Church, Cocking. Nigel Is also vice-Chair of the Board of Trustees at Godalming 6th Form College.
Charlotte Beck
Festival programme editor
Charlotte is an enthusiastic choral singer and has for several years been closely involved with publicity and marketing for both Guildford Choral and Southern Pro Musica’s ‘Music for Guildford’ initiative. She is a newly-elected member of the PMF committee, with responsibility for managing the compilation, editing and production of the Festival programme.
